The New JWST Duplicate Observation Search Tool

MAST has released the JWST Duplicate Observation Search tool (see Figure 1), designed to help investigators determine if their proposed JWST Observations are likely to duplicate existing or planned observations. (See the JWST Duplicate Observation Policy.) This tool is optimized to identify potential duplications by matching your choice of APT Observation Template, plus a selection of optical element(s) and target coordinates, to observations in the JWST program database. The observation template is a concise way of specifying allowed combinations of instruments, their configurations, and data-taking modes. Constraints on other metadata, such as phase coverage for exoplanet light curves, may also be applied. This search tool also provides more robust ways to search for Solar System targets.

This tool has limitations: it does not provide information on the exposure duration of combined observations, nor does it show the spatial footprints of the matched observations on a sky background (although the spatial search for fixed targets does the computations necessary to detect spatial overlap). See the JWST Duplicate Observation Search documentation for a comparison of alternative tools that provide exposure information and footprints. Observers should use APT to check the matches identified by the Search tool and determine if their proposed observations are similar enough to require a duplication justification.